Shrish Kunder being victimized: Manoj Bajpayee

Mumbai, July 2 (IANS) Actor Manoj Bajpayee, who is playing one of the lead roles in Shrish Kunder directorial “Kriti”- film that is facing controversy over copyright issues, says it was hurtful to hear someone calling you a “thief”.

“For me, it was hurtful because I saw everything happening in front of me and then someone comes and says ‘Aap chor hai’ (you are a thief),” said Bajpayee during a press conference on Friday of the film that is facing charges of plagiarism and was pulled down by YouTube amid the legal tussle between the director and Nepali filmmaker Aneel Neupane .

“Shirish is known for full feature films and not for niche, short or experimental films and that they had discussed the idea before shooting it. I am feeling bad for Shirish,” aded the actor who also feels that the director is victimized by a “crook” for “no fault of his”.

Lambasting Neupane, Bajpayee said that they had to face criticism on the social media for such a person whose “viewership did not even crossed 1,500 views from May” and that their film had received 10 lakh viewership in one day.

The 18-minute short film, which also stars Neha Sharma and Radhika Apte and the tells the story of a mentally ill person played by Manoj, was released online on June 22.

The film gained huge appreciation and came into limelight when a filmmaker from Nepal accused Shirish by saying that he has stolen the concept of “Kriti” which was originally his brainchild.

Muvizz.com, the producers of the short film, are also planning to file a defamation suit against Nepali filmmaker, who claimed that that “Kriti” is a copy of his film “Bob”.

Muvizz.com have also released an official statement stating that they have initiated legal proceedings and will also be filing a defamation suit.